BROOKINGS (10-28-26) — Brookings Radio continues election 2026 candidate profiles. This week, we’re looking at the District 7 State House candidates.
Blake Stevens is running for District 7 State House as a Democrat. He said the affordability crisis is his top priority, and he hopes to address that by increasing the state minimum wage… “I don’t know a single person who makes that amount of money and doesn’t either have two jobs or doesn’t work at least 60 plus hours a week. So we have to start there. We have to start paying the people who built this community and this state more money. Next, we need to reduce living costs in this state. And the easiest way to start with that is by reducing housing taxes. It’ll help keep rents lower and not have constant rent increases — like my mother lives in Sioux Falls and she just had her rent increase by $350.
He is also proposing what he calls The Dakota Dividend…”It’s a progressive income tax that targets the wealthy. So anything about $350 thousand will be taxed at a very low margin — I believe my starting number is 8 percent. That would bring in enough money to reduce housing taxes by up to 30 percent in this state, which can help keep housing low and make sure rents aren’t constantly being increased for people.”
Stevens said decades of one-party control of the state legislature has not improved living conditions for South Dakotans… “We haven’t had a Democratic majority in the House forever, but rent’s still really high, wages are stagnating, people are sick, we’re ranked 49th in education, 48th in education al spending, we have a lower life expectancy than any of our neighboring states — but we’re going to elect the same people again? It doesn’t make sense.”
The complete interview with Blake Stevens is posted at https://www.brookingsradio.com/news/interview-district-7-state-house-candidate-blake-stevens/. Two of the three candidates running for District 7 house will be elected. Election day is November 3.
— Brookings Radio News
